Injun Trouble (1969 film)

Injun Trouble is a 1969 animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Robert McKimson.[1]. The cartoon was released on September 20, 1969 and features Cool Cat.[2] It is noted for being the final cartoon in the original Merrie Melodies series, ending a run which had lasted since 1931. Also, this was the 1,000th cartoon short released by Warner Bros.

Injun Trouble
One of Cool Cat's many encounters with the inhabitants of the reservation.
Directed byRobert McKimson
Produced byWilliam L. Hendricks
Story byCal Howard
StarringLarry Storch
Music byWilliam Lava
Animation byTed Bonnicksen
LaVerne Harding
Jim Davis
Ed Solomon
Layouts byBob Givens
Jaime Diaz
Backgrounds byBob McIntosh
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.-Seven Arts
Vitagraph Company of America
Release date
September 20, 1969
Running time
6:18 min
LanguageEnglish

This cartoon was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon until 1979's The Fright Before Christmas, as well as the very last Warner Bros. cartoon produced until 1979. This cartoon was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to be produced by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation before the studio shut down in 1969 when Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National Company until Warner Bros. Animation reopened its animation department in 1980. The cartoon shares its name with an earlier short directed by Bob Clampett which featured Porky Pig.

Synopsis

Cool Cat is driving to the town of Hotfoot one day, when his route happens to take him through an Indian reservation. Two scouts spot him and one of them gives chase, only to fall into a chasm when the weight of him and his horse causes the makeshift bridge to collapse (even though it had carried Cool Cat and his car without trouble). Cool Cat rescues them and continues his journey. He misses the "pale-face" but encounters a man who tries to give his obese daughter away, a man with an arrow in his scalp, a Native American who uses a stenograph-like device to create smoke signals which read "Cool Cat go home," a more attractive woman that invites him for an "Indian Wrestle" (which turns out to be a fight with a man who is far larger than Cool Cat), a Groucho Marx imitator and a literal bareback rider.

Finally arriving in Hotfoot, Cool Cat spots two horses playing human shoes, and a "Horse Doctor" who really is an equine. After that, Cool Cat spots a "Topless Saloon" and heads in, but finds out that the only topless person in there is the bartender, a rather burly man. An outlaw named Gower Gulch then arrives and seemingly challenges Cool Cat to a duel, but then settles for a game of poker. Cool Cat gets a good hand with four Aces, only for Gulch to get a Royal Flush and subsequently pull out his six shooter. Announcing that he is "cutting out," Cool Cat produces a pair of scissors and cuts a hole out of the background, which he then disappears into. He then reappears for a moment and ends the cartoon (and the original series' run) with the words "So cool it now, ya hear?"

Controversy

Owing to controversy over its stereotyping of Native Americans (and some racy jokes such as "Indian wrestling" with a curvy Native American woman and the "topless saloon"), the cartoon has never been shown by United States television broadcasters, or released on video. While bootleg versions are available (most commonly with a timecode on the image), it is one of the rarest of all Warner Bros. cartoons,[3] owing to the relative unpopularity of cartoons from this era of the studio (unlike the "Censored Eleven," which were produced during the studio's heyday).

References
  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 368. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 69. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. The Most Obscure Warner Bros. Cartoons of All Time Archived 2012-07-19 at the Wayback Machine, accessed January 7, 2008
Preceded by
Bugged by a Bee		 Cool Cat shorts
1969		 Succeeded by
None (Final Episode)
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